The present invention relates to disk drives, and more particularly, to a disk drive which is applied to a disk of, for example, the so-called MD (minidisk) or the like including a recording and/or reproducing medium encased in a disk cartridge and is provided for recording information on the medium or reproducing the information recorded on the medium.
As a disk drive to be applied to a disk of, for example, the so-called MD (minidisk) or the like including a recording and/or reproducing medium encased in a disk cartridge, there has conventionally been generally known a disk drive provided with a recording and reproducing unit for recording information on the recording and/or reproducing medium encased in a disk cartridge or reproducing the information recorded on the medium, a holder for guiding and holding the disk cartridge that is being inserted, a loading mechanism capable of transferring the disk cartridge between a mounting and dismounting position where the disk cartridge can be mounted on and dismounted from the holder and a recording and reproducing position of the recording and reproducing unit, a drive mechanism capable of driving the loading mechanism and a chassis that serves as a mounting base for these principal components of the disk drive. For example, the prior art references of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-267124, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 8-102118, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 8-171765 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 8-180625 and so on disclose the detailed constructions of such a disk drive.
In the above disk drive, the principal components of the recording and reproducing unit, holder, loading mechanism and drive mechanism are finally fixed and supported by, or engaged with, the chassis directly, or indirectly, to be assembled into a finished product.
However, most of the above principal components themselves are constructed of many elements, and in order to assure accurate and smooth operation, a very high accuracy is required for the above principal components and their assembled state in such a disk drive. Therefore, a lot of processes are required for assembling them as a finished product, and this has led to the drawback that much labor and time are necessary for the assembling work.
The disk drive of the above type is constructed by assembling many elements as described above. Therefore, the structure is inevitably complicated, and in performing maintenance work for service, it is very hard to perform disassembling end reassembling of the assembled finished product.
On the other hand, with regard to the size of the disk drive, there is a demand for decreasing the size of the disk drive concerning not only the portable types but also those that are assembled into audio devices for home use and on-board automobile use.
The present invention has been made in view of the aforementioned conventional technical problems and has an object to improve the productivity and serviceability in assembly by exalting the assembling performance of a disk drive, and for decreasing the size of the disk drive.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk drive comprising: a recording and reproducing unit for recording information on a recording and/or reproducing medium encased in a disk cartridge or reproducing the information recorded on the medium; a holder for guiding and holding the disk cartridge that is being inserted; a transfer member (slider) for transferring the disk cartridge between a mounting and dismounting position where the disk cartridge can be mounted on and dismounted from the holder and an insertion completed position where the disk cartridge is completely inserted in the holder; a drive mechanism which has an electric motor and an output trasmission mechanism thereof and is capable of driving the transfer member; and a chassis that serves as a mounting base for these principal components, the disk drive being constructed of two units of a holder unit obtained by mounting the transfer member on the holder and a chassis unit obtained by mounting the recording and reproducing unit and the drive mechanism on the chassis, the chassis being provided with a pivot support portion for supporting the holder pivotally in the vertical direction, the transfer member and the drive mechanism being provided with engagement portions to be engaged with each other in the vertical direction, and the holder unit being assembled with the chassis pivotally in the vertical direction in a state in which the transfer member and the drive mechanism are engaged with each other in the vertical direction.
By adopting this construction, the final assembling of the disk drive can be achieved by the simple work of supporting the pivot of the holder by the pivot support of the chassis and pivoting downward the holder while engaging the transfer member with the drive mechanism in the vertical direction. That is, the holder unit can be assembled with the chassis unit only by the pivot operation, and both the units are engaged with each other by only one portion. Therefore, the assembling work (as well as the disassembling work) of both the units can be very easily achieved.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, based on the above first aspect of the present invention, a first cam element is provided on the chassis unit side, a second cam element to be coupled with the first cam element is provided on the holder unit side and the holder unit is assembled with the chassis, whereby both the cam elements are coupled with each other in the vertical direction, forming a cam mechanism for vertically moving the disk cartridge between the insertion completed position and the recording and reproducing position of the recording and reproducing unit.
With this arrangement, the vertical movement mechanism can be provided with a relatively simple construction. By lowering the disk cartridge by the cam mechanism from the insertion completed position to the recording and reproducing position in addition to transferring the disk cartridge from the mounting and dismounting position to the insertion completed position by the transfer member, a loading operation sequence can be performed. In this case, both the cam elements are coupled with each other in the vertical direction, and therefore, the pivot operation of the holder unit in assembling the holder unit with the chassis is not hindered.
Furthermore, according to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk drive comprising: a recording and reproducing unit for recording information on a recording and/or reproducing medium encased in a disk cartridge or reproducing the information recorded on the medium; a holder for guiding and holding the disk cartridge that is being inserted; a transfer member (slider) for transferring the disk cartridge between a mounting and dismounting position where the disk cartridge can be mounted on and dismounted from the holder and an insertion completed position where the disk cartridge is completely inserted in the holder; a vertical movement mechanism for vertically moving the disk cartridge between the insertion completed position and the recording and reproducing position of the recording and reproducing unit by a cam mechanism; a drive mechanism capable of driving the transfer member and the vertical movement mechanism; and a chassis that serves as a mounting base for these principal components, the drive mechanism comprising: first and second rack members that are slidably arranged opposite to each other on the chassis; a drive gear that is arranged between both the rack members and is able to mesh with a toothed portion of each of the rack members; and a switch lever that can engage with both the rack members and switches a state of meshing of the toothed portion of each of the rack members with the drive gear, the first rack member being provided with a first engagement portion to be engaged with the transfer member, the second rack member being provided with a second engagement portion that serves as part of the vertical movement mechanism, whereby either one of the rack members is made to slide to a specified position by rotation of the drive gear meshed with the toothed portion thereof and thereafter the switch lever effects a switching operation so that the toothed portion of the other rack member meshes with the drive gear, consequently sliding the other rack member to a specified position in a direction opposite to the direction in which the one rack member slides.
In this case, the two rack members that have different roles can be driven in opposite directions by one drive gear, and the switch lever switches the state of meshing of this drive gear with the toothed portion of each of the rack members, thereby driving each of the rack members with an appropriate timing. With this arrangement, the structure can be simplified and decreased in size as compared with the case where the above two rack members are separately provided. Particularly, the disk drive can be decreased in size in the transfer direction of the disk cartridge.
Furthermore, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, based on the above third aspect of the present invention, when the disk cartridge is loaded from the mounting and dismounting position to the recording and reproducing position, the first rack member is driven by the drive gear to slide to a specified position corresponding to the insertion completed position of the disk cartridge and thereafter the switch lever effects a switching operation so that the toothed portion of the second rack member meshes with the drive gear, consequently sliding the second rack member to a specified position corresponding to the recording and reproducing position of the disk cartridge.
In this case, the slide operation of both the rack members is switched in accordance with an appropriate timing, by which the transfer of the disk cartridge from the mounting and dismounting position to the insertion completed position and the lowering operation from this insertion completed position to the recording and reproducing position are performed as a loading operation sequence.
Furthermore, according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, based on the above fourth aspect of the present invention, the second rack member is provided with a third engagement portion to be engaged with a support member side of a magnetic head of the recording and reproducing unit and the second rack member is made to slide to the specified position corresponding to the recording and reproducing position of the disk cartridge and thereafter made to slide further in the same direction, consequently driving the support member to set the magnetic head into a recordable state. In this case, a further role is assigned to the second rack member, so that the further compacting of the disk drive can be achieved.
In the first aspect of the present invention, the disk drive is constructed of the two units of the holder unit and the chassis unit, and the holder unit is assembled with the chassis pivotally in the vertical direction in the state in which the transfer member and the drive mechanism are engaged with each other in the vertical direction. With this arrangement, the final assembling of the disk drive can be achieved by the simple work of supporting the pivot of the holder by the pivot support of the chassis and pivoting downward the holder while engaging the transfer member with the drive mechanism in the vertical direction. That is, the holder unit can be assembled with the chassis unit only by the pivot operation, and both the units are engaged with each other by only one portion. Therefore, the assembling work (as well as the disassembling work) of both the units can be very easily achieved.
As a result, the productivity in the assembling work of the disk drive can be remarkably improved. Furthermore, the serviceability is also remarkably improved.
Also, in the second aspect of the present invention, basically the same effect as that of the above first aspect of the present invention can be produced. Furthermore, by assembling the holder unit with the chassis, the first cam element provided on the chassis unit side and the second cam element provided on the holder unit side are coupled with each other in the vertical direction, consequently forming the cam mechanism for vertically moving the disk cartridge between the insertion completed position and the recording and reproducing position of the recording and reproducing unit. Therefore, the vertical movement mechanism can be provided with a relatively simple construction. By lowering the disk cartridge by the cam mechanism from the insertion completed position to the recording and reproducing position in addition to transferring the disk cartridge from the mounting and dismounting position to the insertion completed position by the transfer member, a loading operation sequence can be performed.
Furthermore, in the third aspect of the present invention, the first rack member provided with the first engagement portion to be engaged with the transfer member and the second rack member provided with the second engagement portion that serves as part of the vertical movement mechanism are slidably arranged oppositely to each other on the chassis. The drive gear is arranged between both these rack members, and the switch lever for switching the state of meshing of the toothed portion of each of the rack members with the drive gear is provided while being able to engage with both the rack members. Either one of the rack members is made to slide to the specified position by the rotation of the drive gear and thereafter the switch lever effects a switching operation so that the toothed portion of the other rack member meshes with the drive gear, consequently sliding the other rack member to the specified position in the direction opposite to the direction in which one rack member slides. Therefore, the two rack members that originally have different roles can be driven in opposite directions by the one drive gear, and the state of meshing of this drive gear with each of the rack members is switched by the switch lever, thereby allowing the rack members to be each driven with an appropriate timing.
With this arrangement, the structure can be simplified and decreased in size as compared with the case where the above two rack members are separately provided. Particularly the disk drive can be decreased in size in the transfer direction of the disk cartridge.
Furthermore, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, basically the same effect as that of the above third aspect of the present invention can be produced. Particularly, when the disk cartridge is loaded from the mounting and dismounting position to the recording and reproducing position, the first rack member is made to slide to the specified position corresponding to the insertion completed position of the disk cartridge and thereafter the switch lever effects a switching operation to slide the second rack member to the specified position corresponding to the recording and reproducing position of the disk cartridge. With this arrangement, the slide operation of both the rack members is switched in accordance with an appropriate timing, by which the transfer of the disk cartridge from the mounting and dismounting position to the insertion completed position and the lowering operation from this insertion completed position to the recording and reproducing position can be performed as a loading operation sequence.
Furthermore, in the fifth aspect of the present invention, basically the same effect as that of the above fourth aspect of the present invention can be produced. Moreover, the second rack member is provided with the third engagement portion to be engaged with the support member side of the magnetic head of the recording and reproducing unit. The second rack member is made to slide to the specified position corresponding to the recording and reproducing position of the disk cartridge and thereafter made to slide further in the same direction, thereby driving the support member to set the magnetic head into the recordable state. With this arrangement, a further role is assigned to the second rack member, so that decreasing the size of the disk drive can be achieved.